The poverty rate among South Korean senior citizens has been on the mend but is still high among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a report showed.

The relative poverty rate of South Koreans aged 65 and older stood at 37.6 percent in 2021, down 1.3 percentage points from a year earlier, according to the report on sustainable development goals by Statistics Korea.

The figure for male senior citizens came to 31.3 percent, while that for women amounted to 42.6 percent.

The rate has been on the decline, but it had been in the 40 percent range before dropping below the 40 percent mark for the first time in 2020.

The relative poverty rate refers to the percentage of people living with an income below 50 percent of the median income. (Yonhap)